On Wednesday, March 6th, The BLVD Apartments in Kent sold for $22.2 million, or approximately $163,235 per unit, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer of the property was The BLVD I LLC, an entity affiliated with Dan Fast based in Renton. The seller was Irvine, California-based Trinity Property Consultants, a multifamily property management firm.

Trinity Property Consultants did not respond to calls or emails about the transaction in time for the publishing of this story. The buyer declined to comment on the transaction.

The buyer, a local private investor who owns land in the area and purchased the property to add to his portfolio, was represented by George Miller of Marcus & Millichap.

The three-story BLVD Apartments in Kent was built in 1986 and contains 136 units, according to the property listing on apartments.com. The property offers a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. The studio units are 450 square feet and rent for between $1,050 and $1,150, while the one-bedroom units range from 650 to 850 square feet and rent for between $1,100 and $1,300. The two-bedroom units total 900 square feet and rent for $1,320, according to the web site.

Some of the in-unit amenities include walk-in closets, fireplace, vinyl flooring and patio/balcony, while some of the community amenities available to residents include a fitness center, outdoor courtyard, business center and pool. The property also has laundry facilities, 24-hour property management services and controlled access.

Located at 2136 S 272nd St., the property is roughly four miles to the west of Kent and three miles to the north of Federal Way. The complex is approximately one mile from access to interstate-5 and about two miles from Washington State Route 509.

The BLVD also sits within a few blocks of several other apartment communities in Federal Way. Some of these include the 750-unit Club Palisades, the 308-unit Riverstone Apartments and the 100-unit Village at Newport Apartments in Kent.

Founded in 1999, Trinity Property Consultants manages a national portfolio containing 23,000 apartment units, according to the company’s web site. Through a value-added approach, the multifamily management firm provides its investors with a variety of services including renovations, property repositioning and asset management.

The company currently manages ten apartment properties throughout the Puget Sound region, according to its web site. Some of these include the 247-unit Row Apartments in Kent; MIRO at Dash Point, a 388-unit property in Federal Way; and the 132-unit Evergreen Apartment Homes, an asset also located in Federal Way.

The sale of the BLVD Apartments follows on the heels of several other multifamily sales in Kent in recent months. In October 2017, TruAmerica Multifamily acquired the 192-unit Skyline Apartments from Danville, California-based Green Leaf Capital Partners for $42.6 million, or approximately $221,875 per unit. More recently, in early February 2018, The Jacobson Company acquired the 177-unit Village at Lake Meridian Apartments from TruAmerica Multifamily for $28.1 million. Also in February, California-based Freshwater Investments acquired the 76-unit Lighthouse Apartments for $16.5 million from TruAmerica.

The multifamily market in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area (which encompasses King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties) is showing no signs of slowing, according to a 2018 Multifamily North American Investment Forecast report written by Marcus & Millichap. The report notes that as rising household growth, rent increases and asset appreciation keep investors active in the Seattle-Tacoma metro in 2018, buyers will continue to be active in outlying cities like Everett, Lynwood and Tacoma as assets are trading with cap rates that are at least 100 basis points above similar properties in Seattle’s urban core. A slowdown in construction means that demand is outpacing supply growth, which dropped the vacancy rate to 3.5 percent as of fourth quarter 2017, according to the report. Rent growth is up 5.4 percent from 2017, climbing in 2018 to an average of $1,643 per month.